


Only Teardrops

by SamoShampioni



Category: Eurovision Song Contest RPF, Music RPF
Genre: 2013, AU, AU - Birds, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Birds, ESC, Eurovision, Eurovision 2013, Gen, Sweden - Freeform, malmo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-21
Updated: 2013-05-21
Packaged: 2017-12-12 14:03:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,368
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/812394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SamoShampioni/pseuds/SamoShampioni
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU story about Eurovision 2013 where all the entrants are birds. It's the final of the annual Eurovision Birdsong Contest and it seems like nothing can go wrong... or can it?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Only Teardrops

It was tonight, the day was finally here. Birds from all over Europe had left their normal migration patterns for once to participate in a very special contest. And now it was the final. The final of the annual Eurovision Birdsong Contest. This year the contest was in Sweden, as Loreen's victory the previous year meant that the contest this year was to be held in her tree; the Swedish Oak of Malmö.  
The participants themselves were currently preparing little nests which would serve as the stage where their songs would be performed.  
"Aw man," Robin said as he put more leaves and twigs onto his nest, "Who knew building nests could be so hard?"  
"That's because you have no experience, my friend," Bonnie said, her nest being considerably bigger and more complex than the others, "I have over 60 years experience in building nests, here, let me help you."  
"But isn't that sorta like... cheating?"  
"Not at all Robin, and besides, there's no such thing as cheating in the Eurovision Birdsong Contest!"  
Soon the nests were built. Not that they would matter much, it was to be the songs themselves that were the main attraction of Eurovision.  
"So," the host, Petra Mede said as she flew into the tree, "Are you guys all ready?"  
"You bet we are!" Amandine smiled. They were all pretty happy, the contest was a huge hit and their participating in it meant that they would surely get exposure in the avian music scene.  
"Ok," Petra said, "If there is any last minute preparations you guys have to do with your nests then please do them."  
They used all the time they could get to build their nests. In a close contest, presentation could mean the difference between winning and losing. Valentina and Aliona's nests were becoming almost as big as Bonnie's by this point. Well, Valentina did have past experience in the contest, and Aliona was being helped out with her nest by Pasha Parfeny.  
"This is so unfair!" Ryan Dolan yelled as his nest began to fall apart yet again.  
"Here here," Bonnie said as she flew over, "I'll help you too. Gee, have I got to do everything around here?"  
\---  
All the entrants were now sitting in their nests, except for the Dutch entrant, who was so happy with her result in the semis that she was flying around. Anouk was right to be happy, she had ended the Netherlands' bad streak at Eurovision with her song about birds. Branded a little depressing by the bird community, her performance was stunning and it proved a hit with the audience.  
"Finally, we qualified!" Anouk laughed, twirling high in the branches.  
"Anouk, get down from there please," Petra said, "The contest will be starting any minute and you're one of the first birds to perform."  
"Of course, of course," Anouk calmed down a little, landing back in her nest.  
"So, we gonna hear that high pitched opera from you again Cezar?" Petra asked the Romanian entrant.  
"Yup!" Cezar tweeted, "It took forever to learn how to do it. If a cat or a dog comes the contest by I can scare 'em off with it too."  
"Wonderful!" Petra said, "Although we do hope the contest won't be bothered tonight!"  
And they did hope, but hoping was all they could do. Before 2000 no one had any worried about the contest, after all, it hadn't been attacked by any predators since 1963. But back in 2000, a stray cat had attacked the contest, and it was only quick thinking by the Olsen Brothers that had saved the day. The contest was close to being shut down, and it was only insistence on the part of the organisers that kept it going after the attack. The event shook the very foundations of the EBU, and these days the organisers of the contest were always worrying about predators attacking the Eurovision.  
\---  
Meanwhile, Emmelie de Forest was sitting on a branch by herself. She was being shunned by the other contestants and by the fans too. Why, you ask? Because of the tin whistle on a string she was wearing around her neck. In the previous editions of the contest, human instruments and human technology of any kind had been banned. Loreen had decided to waive that rule this year, and the Danish entrant had brought a tin whistle with her to use for her song, the only participant to choose to do so. While it certainly had novelty value, many birds were offended that she had brought a human invention along with her to what was supposed to be a celebration of birdkind and avian culture.  
"The hell is wrong with her?" Marco whispered to the other contestants, "What on Earth is wrong with birdsong? Why did she have to bring that horrid human contraption here?"  
"I know," Dina replied, "It's a disgrace, especially when you consider all the bad things that humans have done to birds over the years."  
Yup, the birds remembered it well, the chopping down of trees, the stealing of eggs. Birds had a long history of being screwed over by mammals, and the whistle incident really brought attention to the already troubled avian-mammalian relations.  
\---  
The contest as a whole had gone well so far, except for the drama over the Danish whistle. The semi finals of the contest had brought both predictability and surprise. It seemed the fans hadn't particularly enjoyed Esma's ethnic cuckoo music, Elitsa and Stoyan's woodpecker music, or indeed Montenegrin space rap. So just what did they want? Why was the audience so unpredictable? And just how did Denmark qualify from their semi final, anyway? It was Denmark that was the biggest shock of the semis, all of the bird news stations had been crowing on about how terrible it was and what a disgrace the Danish Eurovision entry was to the Avian world. And yet, it had qualified. People blamed Scandinavian bloc voting for the disaster, and several bird protest groups had already tried to snatch away Emmelie's whistle during her stay in Malmö so that she could not perform in the final. None were successful. It seemed that Denmark would perform, whether they liked it or not.  
\---  
Petra flew out of the tree onto a branch while the entrants stayed in their nests. Birds, other animals and even insects from all around were sitting in bushes, in trees, or even on the grass to watch the popular song contest.  
"Hello birdkind!" Petra tweeted, "And welcome to the 58th annual Eurovision Birdsong Contest, and of course to the beautiful city of Malmö!"  
It was now time for the birds to perform their songs. France was up first. Amandine was a little worried about the position, it was hard to win the Eurovision performing first, with all the other songs coming after her it was hard to get people to vote for her. But the songs went well, even though Ryan's nest fell apart again halfway through his performance. And, most importantly of all, the attack that the organisers feared never materialised.  
\---  
"Well, thank you again for all the fabulous entries tonight," Petra said, flying out again onto her branch.  
Petra was just about to tell the birds to start voting, when suddenly she heard a strange sound in the distance. At that moment, the large shadowy shape came into view. They could tell it was some sort of bird of prey. The audience started to scatter away, running off far away from the contest tree.  
"Oh no," Robin said, "Oh no no no..."  
It was exactly what the organisers of the contest had feared, yet another attack on the Eurovision Birdsong Contest.  
"Is that a hawk?!" Bonnie yelled, as the bird came ever closer. From this distance they could see that it was, indeed, a hawk.  
"The contest is ruined!" Petra wailed.  
"The contest?" Marco said, "The contest?! We'll be ruined in a minute if we don't get rid of that flamin' hawk!"  
The hawk circled around the tree over and over again.  
"Come out little birdies," the hawk hissed, "Come to me..."  
"It won't stop!" Krista yelled, as the hawk kept on trying to reach the Eurovision entrants, but the sharp branches of the tree stopped it time and time again.  
"Hey hey, Cezar," Bonnie said, "What about that thing you do that can scare off dogs and cats?"  
"I can't, that won't work with a hawk!" Cezar replied, "Just dogs and cats!"  
"Isn't there anything we can do?!" Eythor said.  
"There's nothing!" Andrius yelled.  
"Everyone stop!" Emmelie yelled, as she walked over to the edge of the branch and prepared to fly off.  
"Emmelie what are you doing?!" Petra yelled, "Stop!"  
"No, I've got a plan."  
"No Emmelie, get back here right now-" Petra began.  
"It'll work, just trust me," the Dane replied, and with that she flew up into the sky. The hawk prepared to dive at her, when suddenly, she blew into the tin whistle, blowing louder than she ever had before, and a high pitched shrieking sound filled the air. The Eurovision entrants had to hold on to the branches tight so that they would not fall off. The hawk circled a few times more before giving up, and flew off, away from the shrieking sound. The entrants watched as the hawk flew into the distance. It was then that the Danish bird landed back on the branch with the other Eurovision contestants, triumphant.  
\---  
"You saved the song contest!" Petra beamed, "Oh Emmelie! We're ever so sorry! Aren't we guys!"  
The entrants nodded, everyone was dreadfully sorry at having insulted the Danish entrant for using a tin whistle, as she had proved herself a hero and saved the Eurovision.  
"Is the contest going to continue now?" Zlata asked.  
"Well, of course!" Petra said, "It'd be a shame not to continue after Emmelie saved the contest. We should probably get to the voting now!"  
The voting in the Birdsong Contest is very simple. Petra shows each countries' flag on a leaf, and the audience cheer for the songs they like, and boo for the songs they don't like. Well, it isn't a very accurate way to vote, but they're birds, they don't exactly have telephones. There is also an independent jury of musically talented birds who contribute to the final score. Then Jon Ola Sand goes and verifies the votes to make sure everything is correct. After this, the winner of the Eurovision is announced and the next contest will be hosted in that country. And it seemed there was one song that was getting the loudest noise consistently...  
\---  
It was taking a long time to count and verify the votes, Jon Ola Sand flew into the sky holding a leaf, the sign for the animals to stop talking and be quiet.  
"And the winner is..." he began, "It's Denmark and the song 'Only Teardrops'! Congratulations Emmelie de Forest!"  
"What?! Me?!" the Dane was shocked, she had won, despite all of the mean things said about her and her whistle? And she had won by a landslide!  
"Yes!" Petra said, "It's official! The winner is Denmark! You deserve it, Emmelie!"  
The birds applauded for the Dane as she performed her encore performance of Only Teardrops. Afterwards she sat back down on her nest in the green room, wondering how she could have possibly won. She wondered if she would have won if it wasn't for the hawk attack, probably not. She was interrupted when the other Eurovision entrants started flying over to the Danish bird.  
"Congratulations Emmelie!" Farid said, flying over to her.  
"Oh hey," Emmelie said, "Congratulations to you too on coming second!"  
"I don't mind coming second to you," Farid tweeted, "After all, you did save the whole contest."  
"Huh," Birgit said, "She won... despite the whole whistle thing..."  
"Well," Bonnie said, "Saving the contest is a guaranteed point scorer! Who cares about a whistle, anyway? It's what's happened today that's most important!"  
"Gah, why didn't I think to bring a whistle?!" Ryan Dolan complained, having come last place on the scoreboard.  
"Well, there's always next year, Ireland!" Emmelie laughed as she polished her whistle with her feathers.  
\---  
Denmark had a great history of being the saviours of the contest, when the Olsen Brothers saved all the entrants from a cat back in 2000, and when the Danes protected the entrants from human bird stealers back in 1963. And it seemed that Denmark was determined to continue their legacy of saving the contest.  
Emmelie stood there on a raised platform as other birds around her cheered. Christer Björkman, the producer of this year's Eurovision, had prepared a special award for the Dane for saving the contest.  
"Come here," Christer said, "My contest would have been ruined if it wasn't for you. We owe the success of this year's contest entirely to you! And it's not often I say that!"  
Björkman then went pushed a collection of shiny coins over to Emmelie. As he was a magpie, it was rare for Christer to give any of his collection of shiny objects to anyone.  
"Oh thank you," Emmelie said, "But I can't accept this, they're obviously very precious to you."  
"No Emmelie," Christer said, "We want you to have them, we all do."  
"Ok then, if you insist."  
\---  
"Emmelie you're amazing!" a bird news reporter said as he flew over to the Dane.  
"It was nothing, gee guys, stop it," Emmelie laughed, "You're all making such a fuss!"  
"Come on Emmelie," Farid laughed, "At least accept a compliment once in a while, for goodness sake! Don't be so modest!"  
The crowd began to chant 'hero hero hero' over and over again as Emmelie sat upon her pile of shiny coins.  
"Oh fine", Emmelie said, "I guess I did pretty good. See you all again next year!"  
"Indeed," Petra said, "Hopefully next year's Eurovision Birdsong Contest will be a peaceful one, I'm not sure if I can handle all this excitement!"  
And then all the birds sat there on the branch, now looking forward, and not to the past, and thinking about what next year's Eurovision Birdsong Contest could possibly bring.  
The End.


End file.
